The invention relates to a tape loading mechanism for magnetic recording and/or playback equipment for drawing a magnetic tape from a cassette to wind around a cylinder at a predetermined angle.
In magnetic recording and/or playback equipments of home video-tape recorders and the like, a cassette containing a magnetic tape therein is loaded in a magnetic recording and/or playback equipment and a magnetic tape is automatically drawn from the cassette to be wound around a cylinder having a rotating head so that electric signals are transferred between the magnetic tape and the head by a tape loading mechanism. Various tape loading mechanisms have been proposed and put to practical use and, for example, in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 52-1134411 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,888 and German Patent Application Laid-open No. 2,719,746. A complex tape loading mechanism is proposed wherein the magnetic recording and/or playback equipment on which the tape loading mechanism is mounted is large and thick. This proposed construction is contrary to recent demands for smaller and thinner magnetic recording and/or playback equipment. Other prior art tape loading mechanisms suffer have complex structure and also the same disadvantage.